Small plane crashes into Austin building
One of 2 recovered bodies may be pilot's
By TERRI LANGFORD and R.G. RATCLIFFE
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Feb. 18, 2010, 8:20PM
Pam Parker
An undated photo shows Joseph Andrew Stack, whose anger toward the IRS apparently led to the plane crash. He seems to have developed a following on Facebook.
AUSTIN — Two bodies have been recovered after what authorities called a suicide attack by a man who, apparently angry at the Internal Revenue Service, flew his small plane into a northwest Austin office building.
FBI spokesman Eric Vasys said one of the bodies is believed to be that of the pilot, Joseph Andrew Stack, the Austin American-Statesman reported on its Web site.
Two people were critically injured in the Thursday morning crash at the seven-story building that houses some IRS offices. One person out of the 190 IRS employees who work at the building remained unaccounted for Thursday evening. Whether the second body recovered was that person has not been determined.
The plane was owned by Stack, whose home burned down Thursday morning before his plane hit the building at 9430 Research Blvd. A Web site registered to him featured a long complaint against the tax system, capitalist greed, his accountant, former President George W. Bush and other targets.
The site is titled, "Well Mr. Big Brother IRS man ... take my pound of flesh and sleep well." The note and other documents indicate Stack moved from California to Austin after the dot-com bust.
Calls to the accountant and Stack's ex-wife were not immediately returned.
Austin police declined to discuss the house fire and Internet manifesto.
The Piper Cherokee took off from Georgetown Municipal Airport Thursday morning and struck the building before 10 a.m., federal officials said.
The structure that was hit houses private firms and government offices, including the IRS' criminal investigation unit. Tax returns are not processed there, officials said.
Austin Assistant Fire Chief Harry Evans said it appeared the plane struck the second floor. The building was heavily damaged, particularly the second and third floors. Officials said the IRS occupies the lower part of the building.
Police said two people were hospitalized and one person was missing.
At a news conference Thursday afternoon, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said he would not release the name of the employee. He said the family has been contacted.
"We’ll just say that prospects are not very positive for that person at this time."
James Hawley, Austin EMS division chief, said the two injured were taken to Brackenridge Hospital in Austin. One was transferred to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. Both were male and had burn-related injuries. He could not say if the injuries were life-threatening.
'Mysterious barrel' at airport
Georgetown airport was evacuated Thursday afternoon while authorities searched Stack's hangar at the airport as well as the car he parked there. FBI officials were looking at a "mysterious barrel" in the hangar, but authorities later said the situation was clear.
IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman Thursday afternoon released a statement saying the agency is still in the process of accounting for all of its 190 Austin employees.
"We are working with law enforcement agencies to fully investigate the events that led up to this plane crash," the statement read.
The Austin American-Statesman reported that eyewitnesses said the plane appeared to strike the Echelon 1 building at full throttle.
Peggy Walker, an IRS revenue officer who works in the building, said she was sitting at her desk when the plane crashed.
“It felt like a bomb blew off. The ceiling caved in and windows blew in. We got up and ran,” she said.
Matt Farney, 39, who was in the parking lot of a nearby Home Depot, said he saw a low-flying private plane near some apartments and the office building just before it crashed.
“I figured he was going to buzz the apartments or he was showing off,” Farney said, adding that the plane dipped down. “It was a ball of flames that was high or higher than the apartments. It was surreal. It was insane. ... It didn’t look like he was out of control or anything.”
'Distraught' family
Just a few miles away at the destroyed home, Stack's ex-wife and daughter huddled in a neighbor's house. American Red Cross official Marty McKellips said the family did not want to speak to the media.
"They are remarkably calm, but of course they are distraught because this is a traumatic situation," McKellips said. "They’re watching the news."
Neighbor Dane Vick said he called 911 to report the house on fire after hearing an explosion about 9 a.m.
"You could see glittering in the air," Vick said. "It was shattered glass hitting the ground."
Vick said he ran over to the back fence of the home and started calling in, but no one appeared to be in the house. He said flames started coming out of the windows almost immediately.
Vick said the neighborhood is an affluent one, with doctors, lawyers, engineers and employees of Dell Computer Corp. living there.
Elbert Hutchins, a 67-year-old retired office manager, lives two houses down from Stack on Dapplegrey Lane.
Hutchins said he was working on his computer and his wife was watching TV about 9:15 a.m. Thursday when he heard a loud noise, "like a car crash."
He and his wife went out into their front yard and saw flames and dense smoke billowing from the second-story windows of Stack's house. They also called 911.
Firefighters arrived within minutes, Hutchins said, but "at that point there was no hope of saving that house." The place was gutted, he said. "The roof fell in and it's a brick veneer home and pretty much just the brick walls are still standing."
A crowd gathered to watch the firefighters douse the blaze.
"Someone said they saw something on TV about a plane hitting an office building," Hutchins said. He and his wife went back inside and turned on the television. They had no idea the fire at Stack's home and the plane crash was connected until media and federal agents descended on their neighborhood.
Hutchins said Stack moved into the neighborhood with a woman and a girl about two years ago. He said he never noticed anything unusual about the man.
"We didn't know him at all," he said.
Acevedo, the police chief, called Thursday's incident "a criminal act," but U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said it smacked of terrorism.
"When you fly an airplane into a federal building (to kill federal employees), it sounds like (terrorism) to me," said McCaul, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee.
McCaul noted that the Piper airplane is one of the smaller planes made and still caused devastating damage to the building.
"If a small aircraft can do that kind of damage, imagine a Gulfstream," he said. "Look at the devastation behind me. It's really extraordinary," McCaul said.
Fans on Facebook
Several Facebook Fan sites emerged, expressing sympathy, if not praise, for Stack.
"Welcome to the Joe Stack fan site. Dedicated to a man, frustrated as so many of us are with our corrupt, inept government, sacrificed his life to make a statement. Will history see him as a patriot or terrorist? Depends on who is doing the writing," said one "angry citizen" who created the "The Joe 'Take My Pound Of Flesh' Stack Anti-IRS Fan Page site."
On a "Joseph Andrew Stack, we salute thee" Facebook site, Shawna Lynn wrote: "Without doing something drastic his words would be payed no attention to. People were hurt but the situation could have been worse. he could have done worse. Suicide isnt covered in the media.. A plane crash into the IRS building.. NEWS WORTHY! i agree with his actions and if i could meet him i would shake his hand."
Langford reported from Houston. The Chronicle's Lindsay Wise, the San Antonio Express-News and Associated Press contributed to this report.
terri.langford@chron.com
r.g.ratcliffe@chron.com
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6873108.html
